Houston really picked up the Heavyweight Championship at the right time -- since winning it last Tuesday, they've still yet to lose, pounding Memphis, Denver, and Indiana in succession. They're at Dallas tonight, which might be a game, or it might be a double-digit win against a team that's lost three of its last four, the only win being over Sacramento.

Plus, Dirk Diggler won't be playing because he was suspended for body-slamming Andrei Kirilenko. To tell you the truth, after watching that video, I'm not sure it's a suspendable offense. He didn't come up around Kirilenko's head, he just caught him by the shoulder. I guess the flagrant part is that he pulled down on AK, but it's hard to tell if he was really throwing him to the ground, or if it was kind of an inevitable response to the fact that Dirk himself was off-balance and heading toward the floor himself.

The Lakers, by the way, have mostly continued winning, falling once to Portland, but beating Dallas in overtime (the game before Dirk picked up his flagrant) and then the Kings in Sacramento, when Kobe had one of those Kobe-quarters in the fourth that generated MVP chants. In ARCO Arena. Yes. L.A. remains percentage points behind San Antonio in the West (the Spurs have played two fewer games), which means that if the playoffs started today, the Lakers would have the struggling Mavs in the first round, and then, if they beat the Mavs as they should, New Orleans in the second round after the Hornets trounce the mightily slipping Suns.